


Do you feel what I feel ?

by RickardoTheAvacardo



Series: A copper and his cat [11]
Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Future, Gen, Mentions of James Hathaway, Old Age, Retirement, worries/ concerns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-06 20:56:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4236330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RickardoTheAvacardo/pseuds/RickardoTheAvacardo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While James is on holiday in Spain Robbie is asked to look after Emily. But when Robbie goes over to see Emily he talks to her about his and James's future .</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do you feel what I feel ?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [asparagusmama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/asparagusmama/gifts).



> Beta read by MissionImpossible  
> For Asparagusmama who has been very ill recently so I hope this fic will make her feel better .  
> Emily is now an old cat from this story on wards.

Robbie pulled up into James’s driveway, he locked his car door and with the spare keys that James had given him ages ago he unlocked the door and walked in to be greeted by a meow from Emily.

Robbie walked over to the kitchen he found a little note on the desktop it read

 

_To Robbie_

_Emily’s food / medication is in the cupboard near the microwave._

_Change Emily’s water at least once a day, you may find that she drinks a lot more than she eats._

_Please check and clean her litter tray everyday (She tends to use it a lot)._

_Thank you for doing this for me, I owe you a week’s worth of pints._

_James_

 

 

Robbie could hear James’s low voice repeating those exact words in his head. Trust that awkward sod to write him a list of what jobs need doing and where all of Emily’s things were kept when he has been round his flat so many times that he knew his flat like the back of his hand.

Robbie was shaken out of his thoughts by Emily’s loud meow; Robbie chuckled before stroking Emily’s head. Emily wasn’t the young, energetic cat that Robbie once knew. Emily’s green eyes had now darkened.  Her fur no longer had the silky feeling, now it was lumpy and dull especially near her back. Emily’s back legs were also starting to get weak as Robbie noticed whenever she walked her back legs would slip or she would sometimes limp. Robbie also noticed that Emily had lost a considerable amount of weight due to the fact that when Robbie went to stroke her he could feel her spine.

Once Robbie had given Emily her food, changed her water and cleaned the litter tray he decided to sit on the sofa and to watch something pointless on the television.

After a while Robbie switched off the television and turned around to look at Emily who was drinking water rather quickly. Robbie then kept watching as Emily limped over to the sofa and unsuccessfully tried to jump on to the sofa , instead her back leg kicked and she ended up losing her balance and falling off. In the end Robbie had to lift her up earning a hiss from Emily before curling up on the opposite side of the sofa.

“Well here we are two old miserable sods sitting together, you with your leg problems and me with my bloody back pain” Robbie said in his usual calm voice.

Emily glared at Robbie as if she was saying _oi speak for yourself!_

Robbie sighed and stroked Emily on the head before speaking again. “Everything seems to be changing so much and so fast that I sometimes feel that it was only yesterday when I felt I had complete control of my life”.

Emily didn’t make a sound nor did she look at Robbie while he was talking which allowed Robbie to be as chatty or as quiet as he liked.

“Now that everything has changed I feel that I should be honest with myself when I say that I’m not sure if I like it” There was an awkward pause. “I mean I know I had wanted to retire for a while now but now I have I feel that I should be out there again, doing my job like I used to “. There was another pause. “However now I just don’t have a clue what to do with myself”.

“Then there’s the fact that James who was once my handy, intelligent sergeant is now Inspector Hathaway” Robbie added.

Emily then lifted her head up to look at Robbie showing a sudden interest in his talk.

“I mean I’m glad that James chose to accept his promotion to inspector, I had been nagging at him for months to do so but now it feels like I’ve rushed him into it”.

Emily let out a small meow as if she was telling Robbie to _carry on this is starting to get interesting now._

Robbie cleared his throat then continued.“James was an excellent sergeant and no doubt he will be an even better inspector” was all Robbie could think of to say.

Emily blinked at Robbie as if she was saying _come on don’t just leave it there, tell me the rest._

“Now don’t get me wrong but James is one of the best coppers I have known in my time, However like everyone else in the nick he does have his flaws”. Robbie coughed before speaking again. “James has been extremely useful to me while he was working as my sergeant, despite that it puzzles me how James can be so smart yet so foolish”.

There was a moment of silence as Robbie tried to think of what to say that would be relevant for the speech that Robbie seemed to be presenting to Emily.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that even though James is fully dedicated to his job and he works his absolute butt off at every case he is assigned too , he also has a couple of flaws that have affected cases in the past which brings me to my next point”.

Emily jerked her head as if she was desperate to blurt out _you humans really are rubbish at talking, just get to the point ._

Robbie sighed. “The issue I have is that on a few occasions James has been known to withhold information, not on purpose but I do think that he did it for personal reasons that he wasn’t willing to share”. Robbie rubbed his eyes. “But withholding information certainly didn’t do him any favors as we were assigned a case many years ago that involved a former friend of Hathaway’s who committed suicide”. “Let’s just say that we had a shouting match and I nearly lost my sergeant to a murderer who set her one house on fire”.

Emily’s eyes widened as she absorbed all the new information.

“Another one of my concerns for James is the fact that he tends to beat himself up over deaths of suspects that he questioned before they died. I kept telling James that it wasn’t his fault and that he had no control of who died and when but being James it wasn’t enough to convince him. It had become so bad that he revealed to me that he wanted to resign from being in the police force altogether”.

Robbie chuckled as he saw Emily’s eyes widen for the second time. “It was a shock and a half when James admitted that to me, but somehow I convinced him to go for the promotion “.

Emily stretched and continued to stare at Robbie waiting for more information to make its ways out of Robbie’s mouth to her ears.

“So I guess what worries me the most is the fact that it could bring more stress on to him”. Robbie yawned before continuing. “I out of all people know how stressful being an inspector can be at times and you have seen how James gets when he is stressed”.

Emily’s memory had taken her back to when James had come home one evening to find him stinking of cigarettes, chewing on his thumb until it was red raw and drinking long in to the night. That was a night that Emily would want to forget.

“What worries me even more is what if James has to face a case where it involves family ties or personal issues, he has in the past when we were sent to Crevecoeur Hall to solve a murder case and it turned out that James had lived there as a kid until he was twelve years old and that almost ended in disaster as he nearly resigned then as well”. Robbie then carried on talking. “Even on that particular case I could tell that James had practically forced himself to tell me that small piece of information about his father being the estate manager, despite that he rarely mentions his family”.

Emily blinked and gazed at Robbie as if she was thinking _well maybe not to you._

“I just don’t want James to feel so stressed that he feels that he can no longer do his job at his unbelievably high standards or that he can only turn to alcohol to make things seem better” . Emily meowed softly as though she was trying to tell Robbie to stop if he needed too. But Robbie continued talking. “I used to drink a lot for years after my wife died and I can’t stand to see James doing the same thing as I did and I am desperate for him to realise that if he is finding it tough then he can always turn to me no matter what”.

Emily sat up and yawned, all this listening had worn her out.

Before Robbie got up to go home for the evening he whispered to Emily “I know this may sound a bit odd but now I have got this out of my chest I kind of feel better , I just hope that one day I will get to tell James how I feel without clamming up or embarrassing myself”.

Emily jumped off the sofa with an awkward wobble and waited until Robbie had left the flat and driven off.

She then made her way very slowly upstairs and sat on her side of the bed as she thought to herself _why don’t you just tell him for heaven sake, Why do humans always have to over complicate things?_


End file.
